My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Much to her chagrin, I said a welder and welding accessories.
She hates buying me tools for my birthday, but it’s what I use, and I look at them as both a way to make money and a very enjoyable hobby.
I’m not terribly familiar with welding, and only know the basics. I’ve stick welded a few things. I’ve watched a ton of YouTube videos so I’m a millennial expert.
Mainly I want to be able to repair my aluminum boat (low priority), build some steel accessories for my trailers (1/4” steel max but more likely less than 3/8”), weld up a couple of pig and chicken feeders out of sheet steel and make some new garage stuff out of angle iron and tube/square steel. Down the road I’d like to weld up some tubes to strengthen my trucks frame, build a custom motor mount, and build my own exhaust for my old Ford.
What would you buy if you want to do all this? Portable isn’t super necessary. I’ll do most of my building out of my shed or garage and I already have a way to transport large tools between them. I’m getting paralysis by analysis deciding between flux, mig and tig machines, big small, high end/harbor freight.
Cheap is good, but my priority is buying something quality that will last and I won’t grow out of within a couple years. I’d like to stick around $1k-$1.5k but can go higher if I can do everything on my list and then some. Or should I go used and cheap and then upgrade once I have experience?
I have an extra 220 (30A breaker for a second dryer we no longer have) in my garage that I could convert and use and my shed runs off a 10k generator with a 220 so either 220 or 115 is fine.
I don’t know very many people with good welding experience. Most are the “get it done” type people so their suggestions are all over the map. lol. This will be my first welder : )
She hates buying me tools for my birthday, but it’s what I use, and I look at them as both a way to make money and a very enjoyable hobby.
I’m not terribly familiar with welding, and only know the basics. I’ve stick welded a few things. I’ve watched a ton of YouTube videos so I’m a millennial expert.
Mainly I want to be able to repair my aluminum boat (low priority), build some steel accessories for my trailers (1/4” steel max but more likely less than 3/8”), weld up a couple of pig and chicken feeders out of sheet steel and make some new garage stuff out of angle iron and tube/square steel. Down the road I’d like to weld up some tubes to strengthen my trucks frame, build a custom motor mount, and build my own exhaust for my old Ford.
What would you buy if you want to do all this? Portable isn’t super necessary. I’ll do most of my building out of my shed or garage and I already have a way to transport large tools between them. I’m getting paralysis by analysis deciding between flux, mig and tig machines, big small, high end/harbor freight.
Cheap is good, but my priority is buying something quality that will last and I won’t grow out of within a couple years. I’d like to stick around $1k-$1.5k but can go higher if I can do everything on my list and then some. Or should I go used and cheap and then upgrade once I have experience?
I have an extra 220 (30A breaker for a second dryer we no longer have) in my garage that I could convert and use and my shed runs off a 10k generator with a 220 so either 220 or 115 is fine.
I don’t know very many people with good welding experience. Most are the “get it done” type people so their suggestions are all over the map. lol. This will be my first welder : )
